It’s Stress Awareness Month again… a whole year since the last one: so the question is – firstly, have you taken any steps over the last 12 months to understand how stress affects you and secondly have you taken any steps to manage its effects better? We absorb so much information on a regular basis about stress and yet the one thing that we know for sure is that we still find ourselves experiencing increasing levels of it! It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that chronic has almost become the new normal in western societies.

“74% of adults have felt so stressed at some point over the past year that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope” – Priory Group

On the plus side thanks to the research being done on the subject we are gaining greater knowledge and awareness about just how much stress can affect multiple aspects of our lives – from our physical health, mental and emotional.

Stress Awareness Month has been running for 30 years and the theme for this year is #LeadWithLove the idea is that “This theme encourages us to approach ourselves and others with kindness, compassion, and acceptance, no matter the challenges we face.”

The Cortisol Connectioncortisol

Cortisol is a hormone your adrenal glands make and release. It’s a glucocorticoid, a type of steroid hormone. It’s an essential hormone that affects almost every organ and tissue in the body, helping to regulate how your body uses glucose for energy, decreases inflammation, regulates blood pressure and helps control your sleep-wake cycle.

When we are stressed, we create cortisol, which is made and released by our adrenal glands and is completely normal and harmless when its doing what its meant to do eg. Maintaining blood pressure, blood sugar, maintaining energy and regulating metabolism etc…

In short bursts, like when you’re stressed over a project at work, it can keep you focused and boost your energy … but its when that short term stress stretches out into long term stress that issues arise. Your body can get used to high levels of cortisol and this can lead to inflammation and affect your mood, leading to anxiety, depression, and irritability, along with fatigue, high blood pressure and more.

Chronic stress can lead to cortisol overload and the signs of this can include:

So, what can you do about chronic stress?stress awareness

First things first – don’t get stressed about being stressed… remember that stress is a normal part of life and let’s face it, living without stress affecting us is pretty much impossible. The key is to know what stresses you, how to recognise it and finding what works best for you, because we are all individual and there is no ‘one size fits all’.

Try…

  • When you’re feeling stressed, treat yourself with kindness. That might mean resting, saying no, or simply taking a few deep breaths. Stress is hard enough without adding self-judgement to the mix.
  • Make time for the activities that feed your spirit and help you to decompress: it could be music, sport, gardening, art etc….
  • Setting boundaries around what you commit to and around your ‘me time’.
  • Discover your personal life jacket eg… running, walking, silence… those things that help you feel calm and grounded when you need them.
  • Try a Digital Detox: if and when you can, switch off from external pressures like your phone, computers etc. It could even be for an hour… just disconnect and breathe.
  • Start to notice those times where your stress is turning into a feeling of overwhelm: at these times it can be helpful to try and step back and do that breath work exercise, to slow everything down …. your breath, your heart rate and ultimately your thoughts.

What’s one kind thing you can say to yourself when you notice you’re stressed?

Denise Rabor

Main Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay